The Charge

Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape,
ultra-violence and Beethoven.

Opening Statement

Another of Kubrick's masterpieces gets shoddy treatment from Warner
Brothers.

The Evidence

This is the story of Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his three droogs. These
three are part of a future society where youth has run amok. The four gang
members begin our story in a bar where they down milk laced with drugs to
"sharpen them up" for a bit of the ultraviolence. Our boys then embark
on a night of holy terror, taunting and beating an old drunk, warring with rival
gang members and finally raping a woman in a remote house outside of town and
beating her husband senseless.

Due to some internal conflict, the three droogs turn on poor Alex during a
botched rape attempt during a subsequent evening and as it turns out, Alex has
killed the rape victim with a piece of art. Alex is caught and sent to prison,
where he can but imagine all the violent fun outside the walls waiting for him.
He turns to reading the bible for both entertainment (he imagines himself a
Roman warrior whipping innocent citizens) and to manipulate his captors into
believing he is truly reformed.

Due to his successful lobbying campaign, Alex is selected for a new aversion
therapy treatment, which is said to actually cure one of violent tendencies and
commute ones sentence. All of which means Alex figures he can beat the system
and return to the streets, raping and torturing all over again. Little does he
know. The aversion therapy amounts to the hair of the dog that bit Pavlov. Alex
is strapped into a chair in front of a large theater screen. His head is
strapped in. His eyes are forced open with metal clips. He is then injected with
a drug, which makes him feel violently ill, and forced to watch images of
horrific violence pass before his eyes. After a few weeks of twice daily
treatment Alex is ready to return to society.

There's only one real problem. He hasn't really changed. He still longs for
violence. Unfortunately for Alex, whenever he tries to act on his urges, he
becomes violently ill. Therefore, the state has eliminated his free will and his
ability for violence, but placed him back onto the same violent streets Alex
helped to create. He is then attacked himself (and unable to defend himself) by
first the old drunk (with several friends) then by his old droogs (now corrupt
police officers). Beaten and in pain, Alex drags himself to the home of the
husband whose wife Alex raped years ago. The husband is a left wing writer who
despises the aversion therapy treatment and in order to prove his point,
discovers Alex's weakness and uses it against him. After discovering the state
used Alex's beloved Beethoven as background music during the therapy, the
husband locks Alex in a second floor room and starts blasting Beethoven at him
from below. The aversion therapy kicks in and Alex feels so violently ill, his
only recourse to get away from the pain causing music is to jump out the window
in an attempt to kill himself.

Unfortunately, his attempt fails and he finds himself in the middle of a
state scandal. The word of poor Alex's travails since being released from prison
has hit the papers and the state's treatment is in jeopardy. In the end, the
state chums up to old Alex, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Once again, the best part of this Kubrick film is Kubrick himself and the
fine work he gets from his actors. Similar to The Shining, Kubrick creates for us some of
the most memorable images on film today. The two that strike me hardest are the
opening scene with Alex playfully looking out from under his Derby. The other is
Alex screaming for the brainwashing to stop when he realizes they are using old
"Ludwig Van" as background music.

Unlike The Shining, this film was widely recognized as art from its
inception. It received four Academy Award nominations, including best picture.
McDowell absolutely carries this film on his back. He is both the main character
and narrator. He delivers Alex's gobbledy future speak with such elocution, that
the many, many words which are actually made up for the script convey their
meaning quite simply, as if one were listening to Shakespeare. He is at turns
dastardly, evil, innocent, weak, and confused but all the while wickedly
intelligent. He sees all the angles throughout most of this film.

Like The Shining, the audio here is mono, which is the way Kubrick
preferred his films. Apparently, he did not "trust" stereo. Whatever.
Since this was his intention, I have no problem with Warner issuing this to us
in that format. I would much rather have that than some modified 5.1 soundtrack
trying in vain to sound good. For a 1971 mono soundtrack, this one sounded just
fine to me. Some have said that hey felt the audio on all these Kubrick
Collection discs was set too low and that they needed to jack up the output to
get a decent rendering of sound. Mine sounded fine. Make sure you set your
processor to mono and you will be fine.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Once again, this video presentation has more problems than it should. While
not quite as bad as The Shining, this
presentation was certainly soft. Presented in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio,
Warner Brothers decided not to give this film any anamorphic treatment, which is
unfortunate. And, before anyone accuses me of the fact that 16x9 enhancement
cannot be done with 1.66:1 source material, check out Crash and Damage from New Line. It
can be done. And it should have been here. That's not the only problem though.
The image was soft all the way around and could have suffered some restoration
efforts as well, since I saw quite a few nicks and scratches.

This disc also had no real extras to speak of, except for a trailer and a
few production notes. Again, if you are going to go all out and build a boxed
set like this, then go all out.

Closing Statement

I can't help but feel this entire boxed set was simply rushed to try to take
advantage of the coming release of Eyes Wide Shut. Which is a real
shame. Warner should have taken their time and really put together a spectacular
set here. Instead we are given what amounts to Warner budget line titles with
transfers from re-hashed laserdisc masters and no extras, all gussied up in
white and blue snappers. Hey Warner, want to make up for this abomination? All
you need to do is two simple things. First, re-release every one of these films,
as they should have been released. Restored, with lots of extras. I'm sure you
could get some film critics or experts to do a commentary track or two. Second,
abandon those damn snapper cases. Do that and I will love you forever.

The Verdict

The film is acquitted brilliantly. Warner is guilty and sentenced to use keep
cases forever more as punishment for deceiving the public.